I'm not sure how relevant this is, but I had my questions about the Euro when I went to Greece (Chios, but in the off-season) for a visa run, things in Greece (well food, hotels, and clothes the latter which I didn't buy) cost almost the exact same number of euros that things in Turkey cost in lira, making things about two and a half times the price. And it didn't seem to be a matter of quality; the part of Greece I went to looked less developed and modern than the part of Turkey I left (Izmir and Çesme).

Given what I said about the euro-lira relationship, I kind of wonder if having a country like Greece in the Eurozone doesn't artificially inflate its level of actual development, by driving up both prices and wages. But I don't know much about monetary policy, just that the close relationship between euro/lira prices across the Çesme Strait was uncanny.

It is hard to escape the sense that with the latest lurches in the European economy, the eurozone crisis is coming to boiling point. Stock markets have tumbled across Asia and Europe following Moody's downgrading last Thursday of the credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks. That move followed days of turmoil in Spain. Meanwhile we have seen the collapse of Greek efforts to form a government, with new elections scheduled for June 17th and the Left-wing, anti-euro Syriza party riding high. It was against this grim backdrop that the G8 leaders met at Camp David this weekend. The stakes could scarcely be higher.

US President Obama used these talks to urge EU leaders - especially Germany's Angela Merkel - to move swiftly to avert a meltdown. David Cameron is taking a similar line : the greatest risk now is that German intransigence over support for the weaker members creates a situation where the economies of Greece -or, much worse, Spain -are left to implode. If that happens, the damage across Europe, including in countries outside the euro such as Britain, and in the US could be immense.
The danger is that internal eurozone divisions and inertia will prevent rapid enough action - as indeed they have for at least a year now. The most decisive action in the crisis to date was taken not by governments but by the European Central Bank, which temporarily rescued the situation following the Continental banks' last big wobble, in December, by flooding the market with cheap cash. However, that was a stop-gap which did not alter the fundamental weakness of many banks - whether exposed to southern European sovereign debt or to toxic corporate borrowing - or of the public finances in Greece and elsewhere.

That is the reality upon which the markets are now passing devastating judgement. To stop the accelerating slide towards a full-blown crisis, the eurozone leaders need to act fast and dramatically. There may yet be life for Europe beyond an unwinding of the Euro, but its collapse would be an economic cataclysm that would hurt us all.

It is nonsense because of the BBC's clear eurosceptic agenda in almost everything that they produce. This has been going on for years. Compare the reportage about the dollar about four years ago, to the coverage of the Euro's problems today, and you'll find an obvious bias. How many reports were there about how the dollar was doomed because it was a mistake in the first place? Or that the US itself really should be broken up?

The BBC just focuses on every single difficulty that there is related to the Euro, and, worse, expands it with groundless speculation. Look at the tabloid style headlines? "How would countries leave the Eurozone?"; "Euro crisis: How a Greek euro exit could affect you", etc. "Your Greek holidays and the Euro..." On it goes, as it has done for over a decade.

This week is not a great week for the Euro, it is true. But the BBC is a little like the boy who cried wolf. They've been blow everything out of proportion for years, so that even if they accidentally get something right, I wouldn't trust them.

The other papers you mentioned do not have the same history of Euro-bashing as the BBC does. I'm sure they have their own agendas, but not the insistent anti-Euro rhetoric that the BBC spews out.

Like Sasahadroogie I too am convinced that the BBC as the voice of the British State has an agenda on this as on most other ssues. AQnother example - lok at the total non-coverage of Galloway winning Bradford ! Beeb did not know what to say so they ignored it !

For at least 3 or 4 days after the Bradford result the Beeb were silent. They had no correspondent available in Bradford to cover the elction and were dumbfounded by Galloway. Since the shock wore off they have cooked up an official line.

Last edited by scot47 on Sat May 26, 2012 10:48 am; edited 1 time in total